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Coldplay: The Scientist Stops the Clock

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Source: Google Images
Source: Google Images

Imagine an arena filled with laser lights and stadium sound systems, bathed in confetti that would put Santa to shame. And yet the ambiance is intimate and warm, as if you were party, to a private studio recording. That’s a Coldplay concert for you in a nutshell. So let’s dive into their past and try to figure out the reason for their meteoric rise and why their music resonates with critics and music virgins alike.

Source: Google Images
Source: Google Images

Formed in 1996 in London, Coldplay are a British rock band consisting of lead singer Chris Martin, bassist Guy Berryman, guitarist Johnny Buckland and drummer Will Champion. Martin and Buckland formed the band when they met at the University College London, where Martin was an under-grad in Ancient World studies. They were originally called Pectoralz. In 1997, they renamed themselves Starfish (No kidding!).Then they took the name Coldplay from another band who didn’t want it anymore because they found it too depressing.
The band has come a long way since when they released just 500 copies of the ‘Safety Ep’ back in 1998. Most of the discs were given to record companies and friends; only 50 copies remained for sale to the public(a collector’s item now). They were declared as the most streamed band in December’14 by Spotify. A brief summary of all their albums :

Parachutes(1999-2001)

A Rush of Blood to theHead(2001-04)

X&Y(2004-06)

Viva la Vida(2006-09)

Mylo Xoloto(2009-13)

Ghost Stories and A Head Full of Dreams(2014-present)

Source: Google Images
Source: Google Images

Their music can be described as meditative and blue romance. It mends your broken heart, making you feel like you’re not alone and like a cushion that softens your fall. Their lyrics are sheer poetry and prolific. So love them or hate them, people are rarely indifferent to songs that, once heard, you cannot get out of your head. It has a direct hotline to your heart.

Source: Google Images
Source: Google Images

 

The richly layered ballads, predominantly piano based are an aphrodite for dreamy people. The soft rock arena numbers are a gently infectious melody, with an insistent rhythmic pulse, and are ideal for both the tedious metro rides and upbeat coffee houses. The self styled grandiosity of the songs never fails to get you. And there’s a Coldplay song for every mood.

Source: Google Images
Source: Google Images

Also this picture features the cover of ‘Violet Hill’, which is one of the lesser known but an Oh-so-amazing compilation. Here are a few other lesser known Coldplay gems from their discography that may have been overlooked in their relentless stream of hits :
“Such a Rush”
Found on: Safety EP
“Easy to Please”
Found on: Brothers and Sisters EP
“See You Soon”
Found on: The Blue Room EP
“1.36”
Found on: “The Scientist” single
“Crest of Waves”
Found on: “Clocks” single
“The World Turned Upside Down”
Found on: “Fix You” single
“Things I Don’t Understand”
Found on: “Speed of Sound” single
“Prospekt’s March/Poppyfields”
Found on: Prospekt’s March EP
“The Goldrush”
Found on: “Life in Technicolor II” single

Coldplay is one of the few bands out there that makes music with meaningful, non-offensive or sexist lyrics, vocals without overly-synthesized auto-tune, and aren’t complete sellouts. They refused to let companies use their music in advertisements, and have rejected offers from Gap and Diet Coke in the past. They once briefly paused a show because a fan was playing the tambourine in the audience. Check out the inane random videos they post on the official website. The group plays like they belong together, creating a sound bigger and more physical than seems possible from just four individuals. 

They’ve won 7 Grammys so far and are nominated for ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’ for 2015. A bunch of their songs have been featured in popular sitcoms such as The Vampire Diaries, One Tree Hill and Grey’s Anatomy(S04 E16, Death and All his Friends). Recently, they forayed into motion picture title tracks with ‘Atlas’ for ‘The Hunger Games : Catching Fire’.

They get nervous about making odd number albums, and thought that their fifth (Mylo Xyloto) would be a nightmare. Maybe that explains the disbanding hints that Chris Martin dropped in 2008 and now again, with their seventh album, ‘A Head Full Of Dreams ’ due soon. “It’s our seventh thing, and the way we look at it, it’s like the last Harry Potter book or something,” Martin said to BBC Radio 1. He said the band is approaching the album like it’s a grand finale. “I have to think of it as the final thing we’re doing. Otherwise we wouldn’t put everything into it,” he said. But Martin was careful not to close the door on new music completely. “Not to say that there might not be another thing one day, but this is the completion of something,” he added.

Chris Martin is consciously uncoupling all over the place, even with his wife of ten years, Gwyneth Paltrow, for whom he penned down the song “Fix You”. Read the lyrics and weep.

Source:  Google Images
Source: Google Images

 

Here’s another classic, ‘Yellow’ :

Source: Google Images
Source: Google Images

But Chris Martin’s favourite Coldplay song is “Glass of Water”.
Take a dekho:

 

Brilliant, isn’t it ? Comment and share your absolute favourite Coldplay track (tough job, I know), and join me as I pray for this band to stick together. They would forever reign supreme as the internet world can never get enough of them. Who else is going to deliver those epic songs that tug the heartstrings and fill the rafters ? Coldplay, do not break our hearts. Keep us enchanted and enticed by your magic (pun, geddit?) as ever, and it’ll be all yellow.

Source: Google Images
Source: Google Images

 

By- Navni Bhatia

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